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Miliband outlines ‘post-oil’ future
politics.co.uk or via Powerswitch.org.uk
The environment secretary David Miliband will today outline the case for a post-oil economy, arguing that the UK needs to move away from “oil dependence”.
Addressing a public audience at the University of Cambridge this evening, Mr Miliband will argue the need for a low carbon economy involving radical cuts in emissions. This would involve new technologies, ranging from biofuels to carbon capture at coal power stations.
“Al Gore says climate change is a planetary emergency. It is,” he will say.
“But it is more than that. It is a humanitarian emergency – a threat to the security and survival of people, not just nature.
“The time is right to look at what it would mean for the UK over the period of 15 to 20 years to create a post-oil economy – a declaration less of ‘oil independence’ and more the end of oil dependence.”
(5 Mar 2007)
In the past Miliband has proposed a swipe card based personal tradable carbon quota system (privacy issues aside, sounds good) and made calls to ‘privatize the Amazon‘ to allow buyers to claim carbon offset credits…
-AF
Miliband: ‘Time for a green industrial revolution’
Ben Russell, The Independent
Britain needs a new industrial revolution to transform itself into the low carbon economy needed to make radical cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, will say today.
He will call for drastic action to cut oil consumption to combat the “humanitarian emergency” of global warming. And Mr Miliband will insist that Britain needs to pioneer new technology such as “capturing” carbon emissions from power stations, developing biofuels and new electric cars, and to radically cut demand for domestic power to hit the Kyoto target to cut carbon by 60 per cent by 2050.
Mr Miliband will say: “In the 19th century, Britain pioneered the transition to an industrial economy. The Industrial Revolution brought together invention and science, a culture of enterprise, and political leadership from our great cities and national government. In the 21st century, we are again a transition economy. We need the same combination if we to make a new transition: from a high carbon to low-carbon society.
(5 Mar 2007)
Notes from the Meeting of International Forum on Globalisation
Rob Hopkins, Transition Culture
I was deeply honoured to be invited to a meeting of the IFG in London last weekend. For those who don’t know, the IFG is a North-South research and educational institution composed of leading activists, economists, scholars and researchers providing analyses and critiques on the cultural, social, political and environmental impacts of economic globalisation. It produces numerous publications; organises high-profile, large public events; hosts many issue-specific seminars and much more. Their last such gathering had been in San Francisco a few months ago, and the subject of this one, hosted in London, was “The Triple Crisis – climate chaos; peak oil (the end of cheap energy) and global resource depletion”.
It was attended by many of the leading people in the anti globalisation movement, as well as many of the leading voices in favour of localisation, Richard Heinberg, David Korten, Caroline Lucas, Jerry Mander, Vandana Shiva, David Pimental, Colin Hines being among those who have particularly inspired what I do over the years.
(5 March 2007)
As warnings grow more dire, Berkeley Nobelist emerges as leader
Rick DelVecchio, SF Chronicle
The director of Lawrence Berkeley lab is pushing his scientists and industry to develop
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Steve Chu keeps up with all the latest news on climate change, and he knows it’s bad.
The Nobel-winning physicist can tell you the projected meltdown rates for the snowpacks of Tibet and the Sierra Nevada. Rivers drying up and millions of people on the move looking for a drink of water? That future, a fantasy just a few years ago, has entered the realm of the possible.
But Chu isn’t just talking.
As head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he is focusing all divisions of the most intellectually diverse of the U.S. Energy Department’s national labs on a campaign to stand and fight.
“These are serious predictions,” Chu, 59, said in a recent interview. “It’s prudent risk management. It’s like saying, ‘Your house will burn down in the next 10 years — 50 percent probability. By the way, do you want fire insurance?’ “
Chu, who combines a scientific mind thirsting for challenges with an enthusiasm that people find catching, has emerged internationally to champion science as society’s best defense against climate catastrophe.
“He’s using his leadership to challenge their scientists and gear them into addressing this problem in the one last chance we have,” said Nate Lewis, a chemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology and an adviser on Chu’s energy program. “We don’t have that much time.”
…The second challenge is consumption. The Lawrence Berkeley lab has been a world innovator on energy efficiency — work leading to the invention of the compact fluorescent light bulb was done there. Chu wants more inventions like that. He’s thinking about things like super-efficient commercial buildings and new designs for green cities.
(5 March 2007)
Yes! At last a mention from the scientific community of how consumption plays into the energy equation. See also No magic bullet for energy crisis.-BA
